19-year-old Adams graduate serves in Europe

Foreign language skills help to land internship in Belgium.

Foreign language skills help to land internship in Belgium.

June 13, 2007|JUDY BRADFORD Tribune Correspondent

People have very good ideas about how to fix what's wrong with the world, Anton Grazin says. "But it's hard to apply them," he says. "For anything to be accomplished, you have to put in a lot of work, and fully weigh the consequences." Grazin, 19, knows about the hard work of political process. The recent Adams High School graduate just completed four months as an intern with the European Parliament in Belgium, the legislative branch of the European Union. "I also developed an appreciation for how hard it is to run 27 countries," he says. "Some people think the representatives all have cushy jobs. But after seeing how hard they work, I think maybe it's not so comfortable." The European Union currently has 25 member countries, and is in the process of adding two more countries, Bulgaria and Romania. Think of it as a "country of countries," Anton says. In addition to serving as a "mega treaty" to ensure peace and trade agreements, its parliament works toward common goals to improve life for European citizens. Recently, the parliament passed legislation banning cigarette smoking in public places. Grazin learned of the internship through family connections. His father, Igor Grazin, is a member of the Estonian Parliament who came to South Bend in the early 1990s to teach at the University of Notre Dame. Two years ago, Anton attended an Estonian Parliament session with his father and became acquainted with another Estonian, Toomas Savi, who later became a member of the European parliament. Savi asked Anton if he would be interested in an internship, but Anton still had to apply and go through the process. To become Savi's intern, Anton also had to learn French because the European parliament's day-to-day business is based in Brussels, Belgium, which is French-speaking. "I learned four years of French in about six months," Anton says. "My mom (Elena Rozina) is fluent in it, and she helped me a lot." As an intern, Anton attended committee and political party meetings, and met with Savi's constituency, sometimes in place of Savi when his schedule became too hectic. "The times when I had to speak on his behalf were rare. Most of the time, I acted as his eyes and ears, getting information and taking notes," says Anton. "It is very humbling, because you're there in the place of a good thinker, a person who has been chosen, and so you think twice before saying anything." He also served as a Russian-English translator, having grown up in a household that speaks Russian. Anton said that as an observer, he found European politics fascinating. "There, you can't treat everyone equal because everyone is different. Some countries have been sovereign for decades, and others just obtained it recently. "The concept of the EU is frightening for some countries. They like their barriers. They don't want an ever- closer Europe. They like the treaties and the trade agreements, but they want their individuality. The idea of a constitution (for the EU) would be almost too much of a sacrifice." But Anton, who is an Estonian citizen as well as an American citizen, doesn't think he'll pursue politics. He plans to attend Indiana University in Bloomington this fall as a freshman, and major in entrepreneurship and accounting. "I absolutely love politics. But the problem is that I don't know who I could represent. Not Estonia, because I grew up here in the U.S. And I probably haven't put in enough time here, either." He attended Adams, because of its international program, its mock trial program, and science and biology study opportunities. In Brussels, Anton lived in his own apartment, shopped for his own groceries and cooked for himself. Occasionally, he would travel to Strasbourg, where the parliament held plenary sessions. On spring break, he took a week off and visited London and Marseille. After having his own three-bedroom apartment in a foreign country, staying in a freshman dormitory this fall might feel a bit confining. But then again, that's a problem easy to fix.